The family truck

In the 1983 film, National Lampoon’s Vacation, the lead character Clark Griswold arrives at his local car dealership and learns that the new artic blue station wagon he has ordered for his family’s upcoming drive across America has not arrived. He is instead offered a “Wagon Queen Family Truckster” in metallic pea-green. This humorous scene perhaps marks the moment when the family car began its transition to the family truck.  In the year the film was released, sedans and station wagons accounted for 78% of US passenger vehicle sales versus 26% in 2021 according to the EPA.  Over that time, large sport utility vehicles classified by the EPA as trucks grew from 2% of the market, to 45%.   Although pickup trucks and large SUVs are also making the battery electric transition, the size and weight of the vehicles remain an obstacle to energy efficiency and a hazard for pedestrians and cyclists.

Source: US EPA, March 2023.